Buffalo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, the population was 46,102, making it Nebraska's fifth-most populous of the 93 counties. Its county seat is Kearney. The county was created in 1855 and was organized in 1870. It was named after the once-prevalent buffalo herds of the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

. Buffalo County is part of the Kearney Micropolitan Statistical Area. In the Nebraska license plate system, Buffalo County is represented by the prefix 9; when the license plate system was established in 1922, the county ranked ninth in number of registered vehicles.

History

The Union Pacific Railroad came to the area in 1866; with additional settlers, the need to establish government was realized. Patrick Walsh, Martin Slattery, and a Sergeant Cody petitioned the governor to organize Buffalo County in 1869. Wood River Centre (Shelton) was selected through election as county seat. Within a year, the seat was moved to

Gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

. In 1874, voters selected Kearney as the seat. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Watson Ranch, existed in the county. The 8,000 acre ranch extended from the

Platte River Valley The Platte River () is a major river in the Nebraska, State of Nebraska. It is about long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, whi ...

on the south, to Nebraska's rolling hills on the north, to a point five miles west of downtown Kearney.

Geography

According to the US Census Bureau, the county has an area of , of which is land and (0.7%) is water.

Major highways

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

U.S. Highway 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...

U.S. Highway 183 U.S. Route 183 (US 183) is a north–south United States highway. The highway's northern terminus is in Presho, South Dakota, at an intersection with Interstate 90. Its southern terminus is in Refugio, Texas, at the southern intersection ...

Nebraska Highway 2 * N-10

Nebraska Highway 10 * N-40

Nebraska Highway 40 * N-44

Nebraska Highway 44 * N-68

Nebraska Highway 68

Protected area

* Fort Kearny State Historical Park

Adjacent counties

* Hall County – east * Adams County – southeast * Kearney County – south * Phelps County – southwest * Dawson County – west * Custer County – northwest * Sherman County –north * Howard County – northeast

Demographics

As of the

2000 United States Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...

, there were 42,259 people, 15,930 households, and 10,227 families in the county. The population density was 44 people per square mile (17/km²). There were 16,830 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile (7/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 95.18% White, 0.55% Black or African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.68% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 2.20% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. 4.66% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 42.5% were of German, 8.1% Irish, 7.8% English, 6.8% American and 5.3%

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

ancestry. There were 15,930 households, out of which 32.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.90% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 8.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.80% were non-families. 26.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.02. The county population contained 25.00% under the age of 18, 17.80% from 18 to 24, 26.60% from 25 to 44, 19.00% from 45 to 64, and 11.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,782, and the median income for a family was $46,247. Males had a median income of $30,182 versus $21,977 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,510. About 6.30% of families and 11.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.50% of those under age 18 and 8.50% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Kearney (county seat) * Ravenna

Villages

Amherst Amherst may refer to: People * Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name * Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst'' * Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...

* Elm Creek * Miller *

Pleasanton Pleasanton may refer to: Places * Pleasanton, California * Pleasanton, Iowa * Pleasanton, Kansas * Pleasanton, Nebraska * Pleasanton, New Mexico * Pleasanton, Ohio * Pleasanton, Texas * Pleasanton Township, Michigan Other * Pleasanton High School ...

* Riverdale * Shelton

Census-designated places

* Glenwood *

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

Unincorporated communities

Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...

Denman Denman may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Denman Glacier, near Antarctica * Denman Shire, New South Wales, Australia ** Denman, New South Wales, a town in the Hunter Valley of Australia * Denman Island, one of the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Can ...

* Prairie Center * Saint Michael *

Sartoria ''Sartoria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,Sweetwater

Townships

Armada Armada is the Spanish and Portuguese word for naval fleet, which also adopted into English, Malay and Indonesian for the same meaning, or an adjective meaning 'armed'; Armáda () is the Czech and Slovak word for armed forces. Armada may also refe ...

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

* Cedar * Center * Cherry Creek * Collins * Divide * Elm Creek * Gardner * Garfield *

* Grant * Harrison *

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gover ...

* Loup *

* Platte * Riverdale * Rusco *

Sartoria ''Sartoria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,Schneider Schneider may refer to: Hospital * Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel People * Schneider (surname) Companies and organizations * G. Schneider & Sohn, a Bavarian brewery company * Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG, the former owner of th ...

Scott Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saska ...

Sharon Sharon ( he, שָׁרוֹן ''Šārôn'' "plain") is a given name as well as an Israeli surname. In English-speaking areas, Sharon is now predominantly a feminine given name. However, historically it was also used as a masculine given name. In I ...

* Shelton * Thornton * Valley

Politics

Buffalo County voters have been strongly Republican for decades. Only seven Democratic Party presidential candidates have won the county from 1880 to the present day, the most recent of which being Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

References

External links

*
{{Coord, 40.86, -99.07, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-NE_source:UScensus1990 Nebraska counties Kearney Micropolitan Statistical Area 1870 establishments in Nebraska Populated places established in 1870